Do you pray the Liturgy of the Hours?

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For anyone contemplating beginning to pray the LOTH there is a great tutorial that walks one through it very effectively called Discovering Prayer which can be found at prayer.rosaryshop.com/.

The website www.liturgyhours.org is very good. It is reliably duplicates published texts (very good for starting a group as one doesn’t deen to know anything about the ordo or the mechanics of the brevary). The site: www.universalis.com is also beneficial but do not use the standard translation.

Pax Christi,
Steph
 
I use Christian Prayer Morning and Evening,(also has night prayer)published by the Liturgical Press, with the readings based on the Jerusalem Bible and The Liturgy of Hours St. Paul edition, which has the Office of Readings, Morning, Daytime,Evening,Night prayers and uses the pre 1985 NAB for readings.

I also use personal prayers from Byzantine Book of Prayer.

james
 
OK, so I got my copy of Christian prayer from Amazon. They sent me the large print edition (even though I ordered the regular edition), and I see that it does not include the office of readings. Is this part necessary?

What time do you say the prayers?

Do you make it up if you miss some?

What should I start with?

It seems confusing. I definitely need some help.

How are you ever sure that you are doing it correctly?

Thanks!
 
Glory to Jesus Christ!

We are all learners.

But you have a good book there, if it doesn’t have the Office of Readings don’t worry, most laypeople will not do all the hours anyway. My regular print copy has the Office of readings in the back, beginning page 1785.

Remember, it’s prayer! Don’t worry if you miss an hour, don’t worry if you say the wrong hour. It’s all OK. DON’T TRY TO CATCH UP OR DO AN HOUR OVER If you do so you are no longer sanctifying time, you are playing head games.

Curiously, the best instructions are at the beginning of ordinary time, which in my regular print copy is on page 688.

The invitatory prayer is said before the first hour you do, even if it happens to be Night Prayer!

I would like to suggest that you just concentrate on ordinary time for the present, and skip the special memorials (propers of the Saints) until you are comfortable with it.

Personally, I recite the hour, I don’t sing or chant it except in community, so I skip the hymns.

Remember, the way the hours are composed today there is a four week cycle. Since we are in Ordinary Time you will know which week you are in by looking at your church calendar. If this was the 19th week in Ordinary Time this would be the third week in a four week cycle. Each season (Lent, Advent, etc.) will start the cycle over. Ordinary Time is interrupted by Lent-Easter and then picks up again where it left off.

I hope this helps some. I needed a priest to show me, he was delighted when I showed him my copy and made a special visit to my home just to show me how to use it.

I hope some of what I have said helps you.

Michael, that sinner
 
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Hesychios:
Remember, the way the hours are composed today there is a four week cycle. Since we are in Ordinary Time you will know which week you are in by looking at your church calendar. If this was the 19th week in Ordinary Time this would be the third week in a four week cycle. Each season (Lent, Advent, etc.) will start the cycle over. Ordinary Time is interrupted by Lent-Easter and then picks up again where it left off.
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Very good advice, with a minor correction: More often than not, a week or two is elided from Ordinary Time around the Lent and Easter Seasons. OT is arranged to always end with week XXXIV, which often necessitates losing some time in the middle. (As this year, when the day before Ash Wednesday was Tuesday of the VII week, and after Pentecost OT picked up with the IX week)

PS.
If you’re setting your book now: The XI week ends today*, tomorrow (this evening) is the XII Sunday.

(* And if you *are * trying to follow the proper of saints, today is the Memorial of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, which due to its moveable nature (Sat after the 2nd Sun after Pentecost) is found between the propers for May and June in the CBP Christian Prayer, non-large-print edition)
 
Hello Iguana!

First off, if Amazon sent you the wrong book, get them to send you the right one! While you’re at it ask them to include the proper yearly “Guide” that goes with your particular Prayer book. The number for matching the “Guide” to your book can be found inside the front page, where the Imprimatur or Concordant Cum Originali is. This guide gives you the all the page numbers for the prayers of that day. In the meantime until your book arrives use one of the on-line Liturgy of the Hours sites to hold you over till it gets here. You can always print out the prayers the day before (provided you have a printer.) LOL.

Also, I would worry about missing Hours. Canon law has regulations that say we (lay folks) should say the Hour as close to the time it is normally said as possible. If you are going to miss an Hour, you can substitute a Roasry for the Hour. For instance, suppose you are running late for work and taking the fifteen minutes or so you need to say the Hour would make you later, grab hold of your Rosary and say it on the way to work! Or suppose you are out with firneds and you know you are going to be home late and won’t be saying Evening Prayer at its ordinary time. Pray a Rosary instead. If you take this ages old practice of the Church lightly, you won’t grow in the virtues it fosters. It is second only to the great prayer of the Church the Mass itself and so it deserves just as much reverence and discipline as you can give it. I’m pretty sure you won’t fall into “scrupulosity” over this beautiful prayer, which is actually a mental conditon - if you haven’t got it, you certainly won’t “catch” it being mindful of the sanctity of this Prayer of the Church.

Peace and all good,

Thomas2

P.S. Here is a nice link to the General Instruction For the LOTH. It is very helpful. catholicliturgy.com/index.cfm/FuseAction/DocumentContents/Index/2/SubIndex/39/DocumentIndex/2
 
Thanks for the advice!

I have another question. When I went to www.liturgyhours.com,
the first Psalm for the daytime prayer for Saturday June 19 was Ps. 119:121-128, but in the book I have, it is Ps. 119:33-40.

Which is correct?
 
<<<Remember, it’s prayer! Don’t worry if you miss an hour, don’t worry if you say the wrong hour. It’s all OK. DON’T TRY TO CATCH UP OR DO AN HOUR OVER If you do so you are no longer sanctifying time, you are playing head games>

Thanks for the reminder that what we are doing is PRAYER…and that we shouldn’t get to wound up in the mechanics of the Liturgy of the Hours. I sometimes feel discouraged because I fail to “do” my hours…usually Morning, Evening and NIght…I like to participate in the LOTH because it is sthe second (after the Mass) great prayer of the Church…and I know it is being prayed all over the world at the same time I am praying…How good is that?
 
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iguana27:
Thanks for the advice!

I have another question. When I went to www.liturgyhours.com,
the first Psalm for the daytime prayer for Saturday June 19 was Ps. 119:121-128, but in the book I have, it is Ps. 119:33-40.

Which is correct?
Click to expand...
The CBP one-volume Christian Prayer contains only “selections” of Daytime Prayer. This is one of the features that allows it to condense 4 volumes down to 1. (recall there are 3 Daytime hours in the full version) The website seems also to include only one Daytime hour, but perhaps selected a different one than CP?
 
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iguana27:
Thanks for the advice!

I have another question. When I went to www.liturgyhours.com,
the first Psalm for the daytime prayer for Saturday June 19 was Ps. 119:121-128, but in the book I have, it is Ps. 119:33-40.

Which is correct?
Click to expand...
You are in the wrong week. You used Week I and you should have been in Week III.
 
I use the Magnificat. Excellent, Excellent, and Awesome!!!

It is a small magazine, it comes every month and has each day of the month in it. It is about 3"x5" in size and fits in my purse so I carry it around with me. It also has Catholic Art, articles, and daily blessings, writings of the saints and so much more.

1 year subscription is about $40. 2 years is $70. magnificat.net
 
I also love LOTH, I usually pray Matins, Vespers and I try to get in Compline and the Office of the Readings. Because it is considered the public prayer of the Church there are rubrics one is supposed to follow. LOTH is part of what Lay Carmelites are supposed to pray so I try to do so out of obedience even when there are times that it is hard (try don’t always succeed, Please pray for me to not be such a slacker). Any one out there who feels called to this prayer should do so (can be pretty cheap with the help of the internet - no expensive books) the blessings are many. I think the strength I draw from it is from the knowledge that so many (consecrated and lay) are praying with me.
 
Wow, this is great to read from so many others who share in this prayer. I have been using the single edition for about 3 years or so and I find it to be wonderful.

I agree with a number of the others that have responded that having the guide is essential to grasping the concept in the beginning and then keeping current.
Certainly the litrugy of the hours is most helpful in increasing one’s prayer life.

God Bless to All.

Carl
 
I must have been caffeine deprived when I posted before. I meant I pray Lauds , vespers etc.
 
Yes-- In the AM before I leave for work I pray the Office of Readings along with Morning Prayer. Before I leave the Catholic Hospital I work at I pray Evening Prayer before the Tabernacle in the Chapel. I pray Night Prayer with my wife before turning in at night.

Guy J. Rabey
Harrisville, MI
 
I find it interesting how much Psalm 127 seems to come up on feast days of women saints, women doctors of the church, etc. So you get the verses about “Truly sons are a gift from God”, and “Happy the man who fills his quiver with these arrows”.

A beautiful psalm, but quite interesting when it comes up, e.g. for Teresa of Avila, virgin and doctor!
 
Yes I have begun to pray the liturgy of the hours. My priest just purchased it for use within a parish prayer group that I am a member. It is the single volume Christian Prayer book. I find that it’s use has had a very calming effect on my life.
 
Liturgy of the Hours is one of the Best prayers !!!

From the earliest days of the Church, there have existed two main forms of liturgical Christian worship: the Holy Eucharist, and the daily round of prayer known as the the Divine Office, the Liturgy of the Hours, or the Daily Office.

Check out the prayers below !
universalis.com/cgi-bin/display/-400/compline.htm
 
I pray the morning and evening prayers and read the 2 readings each day. I usually pray them aloud and try to remind myself that I am joining the entire church as I pray. It would be nice if the Liturgy of the Hours was prayed in common at all our parishes each day.
 
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